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rootofallworlds t1_j11w364 wrote

Yes.

https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/19730006364/downloads/19730006364.pdf

Page 178. Reports a tolerance of 16 g with immersion in water.

https://www.esa.int/gsp/ACT/doc/BNG/ACT-RPR-BNG-2007-09-SuperAstronaut-IAC.pdf

Page 8. Mentions 24 g.

The limit is from the air filled lungs. Studies in mice show triple the g tolerance and for a much longer time period if the lungs are emptied of air. I believe they hooked the mice up to a heart lung machine; doing that for humans purely to achieve higher g tolerance would almost surely not be considered worth the risk.

Liquid breathing is discussed in the second paper I linked but I don't think it has been demonstrated in active humans. It's been used for medical treatment but that's in the context of stuff like inducing therapeutic hypothermia. Anyway the liquid used is much denser than water so that's a problem for the g tolerance idea.

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